Collected into Discipleship

Texts: Acts 7:55-60, 1 Peter 2:2-10, John 14:1-14

I’ve struggled with this week’s lessons, trying to piece them together. There was some sort of logic on the end of the lectionary writers in putting these together, but I couldn't understand why. I can’t quite get over moving from stoning Stephen to being called living stones. Then we throw in a gospel lesson that is a funeral favorite and I just can’t quite gel with it all. I couldn’t find that central message, what I wanted to pull out and tease a sermon from, that is until I went back to the collect for the day, that opening prayer I said after we sang Gloria. There I found and dwelled in this prayer: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life;

Grant us so perfectly to know your Son. Who perfectly knew the Son? I think the person in the New Testament who comes closest might arguably be Stephen. His story isn’t that long, but his faith is astounding. He was chosen by the apostles to be one of the first deacons, those who fed people and ensured their physical needs were cared for. We are told from the first moment his name appears in Acts, in Chapter 6 verse 5, that he was a man endowed by the Holy Spirit with exceptional faith. His exceptional faith then was proven as he was arrested after doing great wonders and signs among the people. It was the Synagogue of Former Slaves, people who had found freedom and devoted themselves to worship together, who brought him before the elders and legal experts. They claimed that Stephen preached Jesus over and against Moses. 

Stephen then responded, sharing how God appeared to their ancestors through Abraham, through Moses and through David, the three ancestors who were often cited to refute Jesus’ followers. Stephen was emphatic that Jesus was in line with them, not against them. It did not matter though. He was stoned to death. But the Holy Spirit that dwelled so mightily within him was not done with the people in that room. A man named Saul was there, holding the coats for those who were executing Stephen. Somehow, through miraculous means, Saul would become Paul and go on to spread the Gospel to all nations, writing the majority of the letters in our New Testament. Stephen’s faith spread to Paul. Stephen’s understanding of Jesus became Paul’s understanding of Jesus. The more I read this story, the more I absorb the words of Stephen, I am convinced that there would have been no Paul without Stephen. This was the moment that began Paul’s conversion. It wasn’t just being blinded on the road by the power of Christ. It began with hearing Stephen’s defense of the faith. Stephen perfectly knew Jesus in a way that makes me slightly jealous. I wish I could have that kind of confidence and absolute devotion. 

Back to our collect: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life. In our Gospel today, Jesus shared with his disciples in the Upper Room on the night of his betrayal that he is the way, the truth, and the life. He wanted them to follow him and trust in him entirely, especially as they went through the next few days of agony. This is the beginning of Jesus’ last great sermon in John Chapters 14 through 16. He shares over and over again how they can rely on him, how they can trust in him. There’s a reason why so much of this section of John shows up in funeral liturgies. Jesus is sharing words of comfort and endurance, things we need to hear when our hearts are broken and we are in grief. 

But this word of comfort can also be twisted to be a word of exclusivity. It can be used to say Jesus is the only way, typically narrowed down even further to say one particular version of Christianity is the only way. Those who fall outside that way are damned while those inside that way are saved. But Jesus is not talking about that at all here. His words in this moment of the scripture have very little to do with heaven and hell. He’s trying to impart all of his knowledge upon the disciples so that when he’s gone from the earth his way is their way, his truth is their truth, his life is their life. He wanted them to see and know the path they were to follow while still alive. He wanted them to connect with him and be at unity with his purpose. He wanted them to have a fullness of life that only comes with being rooted in God. He wanted them to have what Stephen had, a grounding in the Holy Spirit that was truly remarkable. He wanted them to be able to endure all that the world threw at them, up to and including being murdered by the state, something that happened to many of the apostles. 

These weren’t words about the after life. These were words about this life. Jesus was desperate to help the disciples see that no matter what, even in the darkest valley, even when everything felt lost, Jesus was with them, preparing the way for them, helping them continue their life in him. Even if they died on this earth, they could live in him. He is the resurrection and the life. It’s not about who is in and who is out. It’s about how we as followers of the way ground ourselves. 

We ground ourselves in our way, our truth, and our life, so that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life. In following these steps, we are transformed into living stones. One of the things that was made clear to me in the reading from Matthew for our Bible study this week was that Jesus is the new temple for us. We don’t worship in a particular physical location, we center our worship on a spiritual location: the heart of Christ. As we center ourselves on the heart of Christ, we become the walls of this new temple. We are formed into the image of the New Jerusalem. We become as Jesus is, centered in the call of God to do God’s works in the world, to be the people we are called to be. Now, do any of us actually get there? The older I get, the more I believe Martin Luther when he said we are both simultaneously sinner and saint, both able to do great good and great evil, sometimes at the same time. We’re both in a constant state of failure and a constant state of growth. But we are able to be used by God. We are able to follow Christ. There are humans who make it. Stephen knew Christ well. Paul was conformed to Christ and was remarkably changed, even though he still had flaws. The more we spend time working on our relationship with Christ, the more we are built into Christ’s temple. 

That doesn’t mean that our goal is perfection. That means our goal is authenticity. We were all created unique. There is no human on the planet exactly like you. That was by design. Your place in God’s temple, the design of you as a living stone is supposed to be different from me. It’s supposed to be different from your neighbor or your aunt or Stephen or Paul. You were beautifully crafted by God to be fully yourself. We connect together and form a sparkling mural of Christ at work in the world. Each piece looks different but creates a mosaic that is unparalleled in its beauty. If we are able to live grounded in our God and in ourselves, we flourish and thrive. I have gifts and weaknesses, but where I may be weak, you may be strong. That’s how we’re supposed to be. We can’t be perfect. We can be fully human. 

This Tuesday, the refugee family from Columbia that we’re supporting will arrive at the Nashville airport. I’m the one on the team tasked to help pick them up. We’re taking a van from First United Methodist and bringing them to their new temporary home, provided free of change by First Presbyterian. This is the first time any of us are doing anything like this in our lives. We are the first remote community placement Episcopal Migration Ministries has worked with, a team of volunteers being guided by their staff in helping to resettle a family in a location further than one hundred miles from the nearest Episcopal Migration Ministries office. This family is coming to this area because they have relatives in Mayfield. The placement of Murray was actually chosen by accident, their relatives live on Murray Road. The resettlement office mistakenly thought Murray Road was in Murray. It wasn’t until the team was formed that the realization was made that Murray Road was in Mayfield. But here we are, through mistakes and grace, brought together to help this family out. We won’t be perfect in our endeavors. We will be deeply human. But we will try and we will support and we will get some things very right. At the end of the day, there will be a family who will feel safe for the first time in years. They will have a house to stay in, beds to sleep in, food in their cupboard. They will be helped with government assistance, they will be helped in finding jobs. They will be close to family and discover new possibilities for themselves and their children.We won’t be perfect. We will all be fully human in this endeavor. But God’s ways will be made known in our actions. We will be living stones for each other, part of God’s hopes for the world. We will lean on the one who shows us the way, Jesus our Savior. Through trust, through folly, through endurance, we will be led in this path, and at the end of ninety days, we will end our formal relationship with a family who will be living lives that simply weren’t possible for them in their home country. Grace will lead us all through. Maybe we will find more of our authentic selves as we learn and grow in this new leap of faith. 

So may we live into our prayers for each other today as we pray again: Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.